The Officer on the Royal Artillery Memorial
The Royal Artillery Memorial is a sculpture built by Charles Sargeant Jagger as a memorial of the First World War. It is currently located in Hyde Park in the city of London. The memorial is the location of the plinths of the Gunner and the Officer in the Stoneheart Trilogy.
History[]
The Royal Artillery Memorial was built by Charles Sargeant Jagger after his service in World War I. Jagger completed the work in 1925, and it was placed in Hyde Park in London, where it is still located today. Jagger was said to have defied a government edict that banned depictions of dead soldiers by creating the memorial, which shows the Unknown Soldier as one of the four bronze statues.
Appearance[]
The Royal Artillery Memorial is a large stone sculpture with four bronze statues of World War I soldiers on it, three standing and one lying down. Stone reliefs around the statue show detailed scenes of combat during the war. On the top of the memorial is the giant stone sculpture of a howitzer artillery gun.
Role In Plot[]
The Gunner on the Royal Artillery Memorial
The Royal Artillery Memorial is the place where the Gunner's plinth is located. This means that the Gunner must return to this location at the turn of day in order to heal. Along with the Gunner, there are three other spits whose plinths are located at the memorial: these other statues are called the Officer, the Shell-carrier or Bombardier, and the Unknown Soldier.
Stoneheart[]
The memorial is the place where the Gunner first meets George Chapman. Here, the Gunner saves the terrified boy from a group of taints: a stone pterodactyl and three stone salamanders. Seeing that the boy needs help, the Gunner decides to set out and take George to the Sphinxes.
Later, a wounded Gunner is dragged back to his plinth by the Officer after barely surviving a battle with the Temple Bar Dragon. After he heals, he sets out again to find George and Edie.
Ironhand[]
The Gunner, having been transported underneath the city by the Walker at the end of Stoneheart, now needs to return to the Memorial before midnight, or else he will become a walking statue. He begins to dig his way out of the Walker's trap after dismantling the heart stones assembled in the room.
Meanwhile, on the surface, George goes to the Memorial to find a way to help the Gunner. The Officer, waiting on his plinth, tells him that somebody must take the Gunner's place so that the missing statue can survive the night. George volunteers to do this.
(Awaiting completion)